THE MEDICAL AND VETERINARY 
IMPORTANCE OF COCKROACHES * 
By 
LOUIS M. ROTH anp EDWIN R. WILLIS 
Pioneering Research Division, Quartermaster Research and Engineering Center 
Natick, Mass. 
(With SeEvEN PLatTEs) 
As concerns the field of insect microbiology, we seem to have 
got ahead of ourselves in many respects. There has been very 
little effort to group our forces, so to speak, and for the most 
part the available knowledge and information is not properly 
known, organized, or appreciated. 
STEINHAUS (1946). 
I. INTRODUCTION 
Since World War II there has been a resurgence of interest in the 
infectious agents transmitted by cockroaches, in the pathogens that 
survive experimental introduction into cockroaches, and in the dis- 
persal of cockroaches from sewers. We realize that it is rarely prac- 
ticable for investigators to scan all the pertinent literature or to 
bolster reports of experimental research with detailed accounts of 
related observations. Yet a thorough knowledge of all relevant ma- 
terial will always be needed in planning and evaluating future investi- 
gations. No previous publication has adequately summarized the 
background literature relating cockroaches and disease; in fact, some 
of the earlier literature and some contemporary foreign publications 
seem to have escaped notice. For these reasons, it has seemed desir- 
able to survey the known relations of cockroaches to disease and to 
make the integrated results of the survey available for general use. 
Because there is a voluminous literature on the transmission of dis- 
ease agents by cockroaches, one might expect to find this subject well 
covered in current textbooks and reference books. Such is not the 
case. We surveyed about a dozen prominent books in the fields of 
1 Part of the cost of publication of this paper was borne by the Office of the 
Surgeon General and the Quartermaster Research and Engineering Center, De- 
partment of the Army. 
SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 134, NO. 10 
